Compared with Wednesday's 2-0 home win against VfL Bochum, head coach Xabi Alonso made two changes to the Leverkusen starting eleven. World Cup winner Exequiel Palacios and Amine Adli replaced Adam Hlozek (on the bench) and Callum Hudson-Odoi who was ruled out of the matchday squad due to a knock.
The Werkself, with the vocal support of the North Stand behind them in the first half, were on the front foot from the start and the first big chance of the game saw a long-range effort from Nadiem Amiri hit the side netting on five minutes. Moussa Diaby could have given the Black and Reds a more than deserved lead but the Frenchman was denied by an impressive save from the BVB keeper Gregor Kobel (16'). The visitors from Dortmund endeavoured to get forward but there was no real threat for the Werkself skipper Lukas Hradecky – up until 33 minutes into the game. The first decent goalscoring opportunity for BVB saw Julian Brandt set up Karim Adeyemi to make it 1-0. Dortmund increasingly had control of the ball up to half-time with the two sides going to the dressing rooms with a narrow deficit from a Bayer 04 perspective.
With no changes for either side at the break, the Werkself had the first good double chance of the second 45 minutes through Diaby and Adli (48') and they were equally focused as at the start of the first half but again it was BVB who struck. A low cross from Marius Wolf ended with the ball in the back of the net after being deflected by Edmond Tapsoba into his own goal giving the visitors a 2-0 lead (53'). At the other end, the Dortmund goalkeeper Kobel again made a good save to keep out a header from Adli four minutes later.
In response to being behind, head coach Xabi Alonso brought on fresh legs up front in the middle of the second half with Mitchel Bakker on the left flank plus Adam Hlozek and Karim Bellarabi. Shortly after that, Sardar Azmoun and Kerem Demirbay were also brought on. However, the Werkself were unable to find a way past the BVB shot-stopper Kobel including an effort from Diaby with 15 minutes to play that was kept out by the keeper’s foot. Azmoun headed the ball over the bar five minutes later (80').
Leverkusen continued to press to get back into the game but there were no more goals. That meant an end to the run of five Bundesliga wins in succession for the Werkself and that leaves Bayer 04 outside the top seven in the league.
The Werkself are back in action on Friday night (3 February) with an away game at FC Augsburg. The match in Bavaria marks the start of Bundesliga matchday 19 and the kick-off is at 20.30 CET.
Match stats:
Bayer 04: Hradecky - Frimpong, Tah (Bakker 63’), Tapsoba, Hincapie - Palacios (Bellarabi 70’), Andrich, Amiri (Demirbay 80’) - Wirtz (Hlozek 70’) - Diaby, Adli (Azmoun 80’)
Borussia Dortmund: Kobel - Wolf (Hummels 85’), Süle, Schlotterbeck, Ryerson - Can, Özcan - Brandt (Reus 85’), Bellingham, Adeyemi (Bynoe-Gittens 71’) - Haller (Modeste 60’)
Goals: 0-1 Adeyemi (33’), 0-2 Tapsoba (53’ o.g.)
Booked: Tapsoba - Adeyemi, Özcan, Modeste, Ryerson
Referee: Tobias Welz (Wiesbaden)
Attendance: 30,210 (sell-out) at the BayArena
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